/Team Exterminator/
As the team approached the Antagonizer's chamber, the mercenaries readied their weapons and prepared to fight. Leon checked his sights; Anais calmly snapped fresh energy cells into each of her plasma pistols. Nate gripped his shotgun tightly. Sledge cracked his neck, once to the left, then once to the right.
Hefting his sledgehammer Sledge charged the door in front of him swinging the hammer with brutal might.
As it connected with the door the four mercenaries exploded into action, Sledge barreling into the room first with the others on his tail.
The chamber was nearly empty, save for the Antagonizer sitting on a raised dais against the back wall.
"Well, well, well. The children of men have come to end my rule. Is that how you think this will end? With you four walking triumphantly out of here alive?" The Antagonizer stood up slowly, and walking to the top of the dais looked down at the four. "I will show you pain, and when I am finished with all of you the wasteland will come to know your actions as synonymous with the word futility."
"Enough talk, light her up!" The Mercenaries aimed to kill; only to have the walls burst to life as dozens of ants encircled them.
/Team Terminator/
Vincent cradled the crippled form of Siobhan Dunleavy, grasping for the stimpacks in his bag. Fumbling with the syringe and with Siobhan's blouse, Ward managed to reveal her chest.
Her outfit had been tattered by the blast, leaving the remainder horrifically easy to remove. Her front was a scarred canvas, with welts, bruises, cuts and burns covering her stomach, sides, and breasts. Ward began to frantically apply the stims when Mirza clasped his shoulder.
"Vincent…"
"I need to save her; I need to save her she can't…" The collected commando was no longer present; instead a crying boy hunched over the broken body of the once feisty scribe occupied his place. "She can't…"
"Vincent she's-"
"No she isn't, damn it Elizabeth you'll be okay, just hold on please please hold on!"
Mirza looked to Palmer and Teo, neither of whom knew who Elizabeth was. Teo was having none of it.
"CAPTAIN VINCENT KAYSER!" That seemed to have snapped Vincent out of it. "Good, you're back. Let me tend to Siobhan. If I work fast I should be able to save her, but you need to press forward. So long as The Mechanist is alive he will keep sending more and more of his robots after us. If they break through, I won't be able to hold them off and stabilize her. Do you understand?" Teo moved to the other side of Siobhan and began taking out various medical chems to help treat her wounds.
"I do… I… Palmer, how many MFC's do you have?"
"Three shots, reserve of twelve and my last two clips in my utility belt."
"Mirza?"
"Less than twenty 5.56's on me, and then I've got to start hitting things with a bat. I don't think it will go well."
"All right, Mirza stay back and cover Teo's flank. Try to help with Siobhan if things settle down, but otherwise pick off anything that gets close." Mirza nodded and began to check for enemies in the maintenance room they had been fighting in.
"Palmer, you and I are going to take this son of a bitch down."
The big man nodded and leveled moved the Rifleman's stance, ready to put a bolt of superheated energy into anything that moved. Vincent led the security captain to a door on the main floor of the workshop.
"My marker has him behind this door. On three we go in guns blazing." Palmer nodded and grasped the handle.
"One… two… THREE!" Palmer shoved the door open, allowing Vincent to dive into the room.
/Team Exterminator/
Anais knew that the chances of them leaving this cave were dropping by the minute. She had holstered her pistols early into the fighting in favor of her sword. It was a prudent move, given the close quarters nature of their fighting. Leon and little Turchin seemed to be holding their own despite a nasty cut along the former's brow and the latter's resorting to using a switchblade as his last resort.
Sledge was a wrecking ball, barreling into troves of ants, smashing, stomping and crushing them. But even he was showing signs of slowing down.
When a large ant had tackled Sledge from behind he had managed to grasp hold of it and suplex it to the ground with a wet crunch. In the moment between the grasp and the crunch another ant had jumped on top of him and was snapping at his face.
Anais bounded towards the downed giant, neatly severing the ant's head from thorax before Sledge was downed. Covered in gore, Sledge grabbed the remainder of the ant's body and flung it at a nearby Ant Soldier, momentarily stunning it.
"We need to end this, now." Sledge nodded
"You are the only thing that will end now, little humans. You will fall to the swarm and your bones will decorate my throne!" The Antagonizer ordered another wave of soldiers to attack Anais and Sledge.
Leon emptied his last clip into the face of an Ant solider before tossing the rifle down and bounding towards the dais. Unsheathing a combat knife, he swatted at ants and lobotomized others that crawled down towards him.
"You wish to fight weak human? Let a queen show you how it is done!" All ants immediately stopped fighting and receded to the walls. The Antagonizer drew a long, sharpened kitchen knife and lunged at Leon.
Nate, covered in bites and sweating profusely, stumbled over to Anais and Sledge. The Outcast and the bruiser had locked onto the fight going on the Dais, watching the two fighters storm about with their knives, the songs of steel reverberating around the near silent chamber.
The Ants had also stopped, and had raised their eyes to the throne, clicking their mandibles in unison, as if spurring their queen on.
Leon neatly dodged a swipe from the Antagonizer before countering with an upward strike. The Antagonizer nimbly sidestepped the blow and brought her heel to bear on Leon's face. The Mercenary stumbled, but barely managed to stay on his feet. He reverse gripped his knife and began to carve savage arcs at the Antagonizer, who was pressed further and further back on the Dais. Her glistening blade in hand, the Antagonizer thrust forward landing a cut along Leon's shoulder.
It was all the opportunity Leon needed, as he drove the combat knife into the gut of the Antagonizer, twisting the knife. The queen shrieked, a sound that was less flanging than her earlier voice and more human. Her energy sapped, she dropped the knife to the ground, where it tumbled down the steps until it finally landed on the bottommost step of the Dais.
The Antagonizer looked at Leon and weakly raised her hand to slip off her mask. "Th-Th-Tha- Thank y-yo-you. I can re-rest now. They have stopped, the voices have stopped…" The voice was small and fragile, and the girl behind the mask was a far cry from the sadistic monster that had stood before him minutes earlier.
"Take… Knife. Take… charges… use it… cave in cavern…" She gurgled as blood began to trickle from the corners of her mouth. "And don't…" The girl let out a sigh and slumped in his arms. She had felt so light moments earlier, yet the weight seemed to be bringing him down.
As the ants began to back out of the cavern and into the tunnels, Anais bounded to the steps and gingerly handled the knife. "SLEDGE, NATE! Get over here!"
The two men followed after her. "Sledge, Leon's been poisoned. Retrieve him." The giant nodded and moved up the steps with some grace.
"Nate, we have less than an hour before a new queen is chosen. Instead of the focused attacks of the Antagonizer, we are looking at a true mindless swarm. Look around and grab anything of value before we get out of here."
"Anais…" Leon murmured as Sledge hoisted him over his shoulder.
"Leon? What is it?"
"Charges, she has charges…"
"Sledge, get him out of here. We'll rig the cavern."
The giant nodded and carried Leon out of the chamber and back through the labyrinth of the tunnels that led to the entrance. Anais began to frantically search for the charges, with the chattering of ants echoing all around them.
/Team Terminator/
Vincent and Palmer burst into the room before them, only to find a dead end room void of anything but what seemed to be junk.
"Well, that was unexpected. You sure your pip boy is correct?"
"The tracer that Haskel set up isn't wrong. It's showing him to be in here."
"Do you see a gaudy looking robot costumed jackass Kayser?"
"Check for anything that could be screwing up the signal." The two fanned out, checking monitors and other electric parts for any kind of signal that could be throwing them off. Vincent was inspecting an imposing computer panel on one end of the room when Palmer threw his hands up in frustration. "This is all junk, and this is pointless. We need to be sweeping the other rooms."
"The signal shows him as being right here. It's not wrong, because if it is then Haskel is wrong. He's a criminal mastermind who doesn't like to be proven wrong. Short of him taking me on, he isn't going to be wrong on anything."
"You put an awful lot of trust into people Kayser. Teodoro told me about what happened in Megaton, and to be completely honest with you I don't think Haskel has your best interests at heart."
Vincent stopped futzing with the panel and walked over to stare at Palmer at arm's length. "How exactly is that the case?"
"Not only did you shut down a megalomaniac perfectionist renown throughout the Capital Wasteland as the right hand of Alistair Tenpenny, you did it in front of a bunch of Mercenaries he considers beneath him. How can you not see the resentment behind that? You, an untrained boy took on one of the most ruthless men in DC and humiliated him in front of an audience. Beyond that Haskel has designs on this organization. He's not building it up for you; he's building it up for himself. He's waiting for the opportunity to spring on you-"
*crack*
Vincent had backhanded Palmer. "If, what you are saying is true I will handle it accordingly. Until you have more than words and wind, keep your damn mouth shut."
Palmer stumbled back into a table and grasped for the nearest object that he could find, which turned out to be a coffee maker.
*click*
Both men stopped and stared at the wall adjacent to the coffee maker, which had slid open to reveal a series of mechanisms and unlocked and neatly moved away revealing a costumed Mechanist, whose modified laser pistol was trained on Ward.
The world came rushing back in a blur. A ship, a bar, a desert, a trek, a house, a girl, an Abby, a fire, a fist, a whip, a chain, a key, a brand, a face, a light, a light, a light…
"UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHH!" Siobhan sat up on the catwalk, gulping at the air around her. It had felt as though she had been hit by one of those prewar buses you always saw ruined in towns and cities.
"Mierda! She's coming around!" Siobhan focused her vision to see a lanky, red robed kid leaning over her.
After a long second Siobhan's eye grew wide. "Derek!" hobbling to her feet, she looked down to see her scarred and wounded chest was exposed. Uncaring, she began to move when the unmistakable hiss of laser fire erupted from downstairs.
/Team Terminator/
Vincent and Palmer's eyes locked on the Mechanist.
"You are the men who have destroyed my robots, are you not?"
"Mechanist, we are here to bring you justice. Surrender and you will not be harmed."
The Man regarded him for a moment, before firing at Vincent's leg. Laser burned through pant leg and skin, causing Vincent to collapse to his knee in searing pain. Palmer moved to get up.
The Mechanist wheeled on him and fired one of his modified lasers into Palmer's side. The burly guard crumpled and flew back against the wall.
"I am justice. Who are you? Some adventurers who came to the aid of a lawless town of thieves and idlers? Are you fighting for the honor of Canterbury? Or for a fat paycheck?"
Vincent looked up to stare at the Mechanist and spoke through gritted teeth. "So the solution is to raze the town and all of its inhabitants? Since when is that justice?"
"The world of men has proven itself corrupt and ignorant. Only through dawn of robotics can the errors of man be rectified."
The door swung open to reveal a battered and defiant Siobhan.
"Derek Pacion thinks otherwise Scott."
The Mechanist turned his gun on the newcomer, but instead of firing stopped and watched her intently.
"Derek is a boy-"
"Derek knows who you were once Scott, he knows that you were a good man who helped Canterbury. He knows that you are hurting and that you need help. He knows that your robot was destroyed and above all else he wants to help."
"Justice comes above all others." The Mechanist mumbled his grip on the laser pistol not nearly as firm as he thought it was.
"Not when it comes at the expense of the innocent. Justice is about standing up for the innocent, about standing up for the little guy. It isn't justice anymore when you stomp on him."
The Mechanist's grip was loose on his weapon, and Ward wasn't going to take any chances. In one motion he unsheathed his knife from his boot and whipped it at the Pistol. The Knife sliced through Scott's hand, knocking the pistol out of his hand and making him cry out in pain.
Using the opportunity, Vincent used the last of his strength to dive through the newly made entrance and tackle the surprised Mechanist. Unholstering a pistol from his belt, Vincent rammed it against the side of Scott's helmet.
"Vincent, STOP!" Siobhan shouted across the room, racing over to Vincent.
"Vincent, you don't have to do this, you don't have to kill him."
"He's a threat. He's unbalanced and he's a threat to Canterbury." Vincent coolly justified.
"No he's not, look at him, he's beaten." Scott was staring straight at Vincent from behind his mask. He couldn't see the eyes, but he could feel them. Boring into him from behind hat stupid robot mask, the eyes of the man who had almost killed his Elizabeth…
"Vincent, you don't have to do this… you can stop."
"He almost killed you."
"He didn't."
"He almost killed us."
"He didn't."
"He killed my Elizabeth."
"Vincent, he didn't kill her."
And just like that, it stopped. This man hadn't killed Elizabeth. He wasn't responsible for the reaping of the north, for the fires in the city, for the smoke and the trogs. For the decay and corruption he had seen.
He was just a man, a man who was not seeing clearly. A man marred by past mistakes and horrors that shouldn't have mattered in a post war world. He needed help if he was going to be saved.
Vincent moved the gun away and slid it back into his belt. "We're done here. Go check on Palmer."
/Team Exterminator/
"Anais, I grabbed anything that looked important like you asked. Did you find the charges yet?"
The Outcast Knight ripped bins away from the walls of the Antagonizer's Lair. The makeshift bedroom off to the side of the central chamber was littered with miscellaneous items of junk and scrap with no regard for organization or order. The seconds ticked by as Anais recalled her studies of Ant colonies: After a queen died, either by natural causes or by murder the ants would select the most viable female for uplifting. Typical Mutant Ant colonies actually moved as autonomous units where the Queen was little more than a living Ant factory. She had no control over the ants, either individually or in their coordiantion. Anais had only seen a handful of Ant Colonies that acted like this nest here at Canterbury. The factor that tied them together was trace amounts of FEV in the bodies of the Ants or in their eggs.
That was what troubled Anais: A human queen with no ties to the ants physiologically controlled them in a coordinated fashion. The theories and hypothoses that were now shattered by this revelation were still giving Anais pause, even through her search for the-
"THERE YOU ARE! NATE! Get to the entrance!" Anais yelled as raced to the center of the room, setting the charges along the central pillar of the the Dais.
"Remote charges?" The mechanic asked nervously.
"Timed."
"Well... Of course they are." Nate muttered.
"It works better this way. We set the charges for a few minutes, dash for the entrance, and when they go off they will take out this chamber and most likely destabilize the entire cave network."
"What if it doesn't- Wait, did you say a few minutes?! Why in God's name are we racing the clock?!"
"Because-" Anais began to turn the dial to ten minutes. "Very, very soon the ants will select a new ant queen. Once she is in place, they will return to their normal activities. Namely, ripping apart the intruders in their hive." With an omninous beep, the antiquated demolition charges began to count downwards.
"Now, MOVE!" Anais shouted as Nate scrambled to the doorway.
/Team Exterminator/
The two had been racing through the winding tunnels of the colony when thousands of individual clicks began to echo from behind them.
"We are out of time Turchin, get your ass moving!" Anais bounded towards around the corner of the tunnel. Before her lay the maintenance hallway they had come in from. Nate hurried after her, clutching his knapsack of scavenged goods tightly. As the two raced up flights of stairs and past side rooms, they reached an equal pace. Anais took two steps at a time at the next staircase.
*snap* Anais saw the broken wire after she heard it and looked up to the ceiling in abject horror.
A bouquet of fragmentation grenades fell to the ground pinless. Anais dove forward, tackling the mechanic closer to the doorway and shielding him as the grenades hit the steps, bounced twice and then exploded.
Hot shrapnel tore through Anais' back and the sheer force of the explosion. Darkness swirled around her mind as the clicking grew louder, and the scurrying of little feet on bare metal flooded her senses.
Nate woke first, not knowing how many minutes had passed, not knowing how they were even alive after being knocked unconcious by a cluster of grenades.
As he sat up he noticed two things: The lithe form of Anais Viray was still breathing, albeit in ragged shallow bouts.
The second thing was a massive ant hvering not five feet away from them, mandibles slowly opening and closing as marble tar eyes stared vacantly at the pair.
Not making any drastic movements Nate assessed his situation carefully: Anais was unconcious at best, critically wounded and at death's doorstep at the worst. The charges they set had either yet to go off, or had made such a negligible difference that Ants could still reach the surface. He had no weapons on his person save for a switchblade in his overalls. And an ant the size of a corvega was staring him down from a laughable distance.
If he made it out of this alive, he would be talking to Vincent about some serious hazard pay.
As his eyes flicked over Anais he noticed a glimmer from one of her shoulder holsters. One of her fancy Plasma Pistols...
The question is, does it still even work.
The Ant's mandible snapped shut as it took a scuttle forward. 'What would Vincent do?'
Nate snatched the pistol from it's holster and squeezed down on the trigger wildly, sending bursts of searing hot Plasma in the direction of the Ant. As it screeched in agony at the energy induced burns, Nate jumped up and grabbed Anais by her arms and dragged her down the hallway. No more stairs, no more traps, just fifteen feet of ground and the maintenance hatch...
A dull thrum sounding somewhere deep within the cavern shaking the ceiling and making the emergency lights along the hallway flicker. The Ant furiously charged forward, half blind and frenzied by it's wounds.
Nate didn't even pause as he yanked Anais backwards towards the hatch. All other sounds were drowned out by the sound of rock collapsing upon itself. Nate turned to face the hatch, flinging it open and grabbing Anais. The Ant was nearly on them, screeching violently as a wave of dust issued from the back of the corridor.
With every last bit of strength, Nate dragged Anais into the crimson light of the Capital Wasteland. He didn't even have time to close the door as the wave of debris exploded outwards, knocking himself and Anais out of the entrance and onto the dry earth.
A/N: Quite a bit happened here, didn't it folks? Look for the next chapter, to be posted in a few hours.
This installment of the Cowboy trilogy will be wrapping up rather neatly. Work on the second act (And by far the biggest of the three) will begin following the epilogue.
Until then, thanks for reading! Make sure to review and rate. And please feel free to drop me a line if you have any comments, concerns, suggestions. I'm open to doing various missions from the main game and right now the "meat" of the story is still kind of vague. So if you really want to see one kind of mission over another, please do let me know!
This is Blue-Jaye, singing off. ;)